Headphones

17 readers

1 users here now

A community for discussion around all topics related to headphones and personal audio.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

communick@hi-fi.community

Improvement rate on headphones over the years? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by TRAXXAS58@alien.top to c/headphones@hi-fi.community

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Do you guys think a headphone that cost £200+ over 10 years ago is still better than a cheap headphone brand new today?

I feel like the rate of quality increase isn't anywhere near as fast as something like smartphones & the old headphones would still be better? Anyone have any input on this?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] AdeptFelix@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Try 25 years. The Sennheiser HD600 is still considered great.

I will say that there's a way better selection of great headphones now than pretty much ever, but things largely haven't changed. Planar headphones were the biggest thing to happen since then and they're not necessarily better than old dynamic drivers, just better at different things.

At the end of the day, a headphone just turns squiggly electric waves into a medium that wiggles and pushes air in ways that make noise. Tech advances don't really do much to change that basic concept.

[–] Arnval0@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I mean planars are not new either, yamaha started making them in the the 70s and many others like fostex have been making them for quite some time. They just fell out of fashion for a bit.

[–] Flamebomb790@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I wish e stats were more common since the only ones I can think of are STAX, Koss, and He-1 lol . I know they are annoying since they require an electrolizer and have a bag on something like it around them to keep off the dust

[–] aceCrasher@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Audeze, Warwick Acoustics and DCA make estats too.

[–] gregtofu@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

And boi would I love to get my hands on a Bravura someday. Never has the opportunity to try out estats, and I really wanna.

[–] AdeptFelix@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I knew the tech was around for a long while, it was just so uncommon until recently. I guess that's an even bigger indication of how little tech advancements there have really been in headphones.